Finding Top Quality Home School Programs

Finding Top Quality Home School Programs

Article by jarrod jones

Most people would be of the opinion that the idea of having home school programs is a fairly recent phenomenon. Nothing could be further from the truth. Up until 1852, when Massachusetts passed a compulsory school attendance law, children who received any education followed home school programs. Parents used the Bible as a tool to teach reading and writing, and other skills were learned through life experiences and the tutorage of elders.Public schools began to be established during the 19th century to provide education for orphans who had no parents to educate them. Before public schools were introduced, lots of children were educated with home school programs or in private schools. Illiteracy was rife at this time, and the majority of children were never adequately educated.

By 1918 similar compulsory education laws had been adopted in all states. Little opposition to these laws occurred until the 1960’s and 70’s when parents began to question the public education system. They began to investigate alternative methods of educating their children. As a result, home schooling is legal in 50 states. Regulations and laws vary state to state and if you are considering home school programs you need to check your state laws carefully.

Who chooses to home school their children? Many parents choose to run home school programs for religious or moral reasons. Some parents have concerns about the school environment (drugs, bullying, or safety) or have other reasons to choose home school programs. Apart from instructing your children in reading, writing and math, you need to address their social development as well. This can be achieved through interacting with other home schooled children, or through church and sporting activities. Education is not only about literacy and numeracy instruction. It is about ensuring that your child develops socially, emotionally and psychologically in a well-balanced manner.

Whatever the reason you have to choose to home school your children, you must follow a curriculum to ensure that your child receives a good education. Parents are not trained teachers, and they need specialist help in delivering lessons. If you wish to send your children on to further education, they will need to pass standardized tests. In order to pass these tests your child must follow the state curriculum.

There are many programs available to help parents to home school successfully, and many teachers in regular schools use these resources too. Classroom phonics programs are a very valuable resource for teachers and parents.

Mcruffy Press publish great resources for classroom phonics that can be used for home school programs. Teaching your child to read needs a sound base that can be achieved through using phonics activities. The web site details the resources available to use to teach classroom phonics when you choose to home school. Included are teacher’s manuals that detail daily lesson plans that are easy to follow, work books that cover spelling, phonics activities, comprehension and assessment. The resource pack contains flash cards necessary to use with phonics activities.

Mcruffy Press was founded by Brian Davis, a former elementary school teacher. The products offered by Mcruffy Press help parents as teachers to deliver lessons appropriate to their children’s learning styles. The web site allows you to download a sample of the programs available, which is an excellent way to preview the resources. Classroom phonics and phonics activities are not the only resources available from Mcruffy Press. They offer grade specific products focusing on reading, math, science, handwriting and spelling that cater for traditional classrooms and home school programs, targeting students from kindergarten to grade 4. Many schools throughout America choose these products for classroom phonics instruction.

About the Author

Since 1991 Mcruffy Press has produced materials for early learning success, whether it occurs in public or private schools or in home school programs. They offer an online service for purchasing the materials that will help to give your home schooled children a strong educational start in life. You can email or phone them for advice on their products.

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